Life, Kids & The Pursuit of Happiness: One Mama's Quest to Uncover her Best Self

Peanuts, Pilgrims and a Mayflower Ship

Before I embarked on my new journey to self discovery and happiness, I worked full time. When Caleb was little and I was at the start up, I was awake, out of the house and on the train headed to Chicago before he woke up. Luckily with the help of my husband he was able to tackle mornings. I treasured my nights with Caleb and it gave me something to look forward to all day.

When he was really little, night time was the bewitching hour. It wasn’t always easy to get him to bed. Nonetheless, as Caleb got older bedtime became easier with our nightly routine and this time was always Mama time. If it is a shower night, our nightly routine would start here. If it is not, we tend to play a bit later than we should. We work our way up to his bedroom, sometimes still playing. Usually it takes a race where I lose to get up stairs. He loves music and reading and sometimes before bed we break out into a little dance party, other times it is an extra story. His mind starts to shut down and that’s when my favorite part of the day comes alive.

Have your kids discovered Peanuts? Last year we took Caleb to see the new Peanuts movie and he has been obsessed with Charlie Brown and the rest of the Peanuts gang ever since. With the holidays upon us, old Peanuts movies have come to life again for us to enjoy with our kids. Around Thanksgiving, one of the TV stations played, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and Caleb learned about the Mayflower. Do you know how hard it is to talk about the English Separatists (Pilgrims) coming to America on the Mayflower Ship to an almost 5 year old? He learned about this from Charlie Brown. I am thankful for this because now we have a new interest but geez…I have to pull up Wikipedia to answer his questions. You know, he still thinks I know everything. I better enjoy this while I can. I digress, what does this have to do with bedtime. So the other night he was in the shower and I was trying to multi-task by putting away laundry and all he wanted to do was talk about the Mayflower ship and the people coming to America. “Mama! He would yell, did you know that people got sick on the ship? ” I’d respond. ” Mama! He would yell, did you know that the waves were really big and came on the ship? Why do the waves come on the ship in the ocean? How did they get so big? ” <—-Mind you this has now detoured to a topic about weather and water currents. This lasted almost until he got in bed where he wanted to watch some videos about the Mayflower ship but changed his mind last minute to read a story. (good choice kid.)

Ending 1:

So Bedtime is my favorite time of the day because after the silliness, the stories and the snuggles we tend to get a bit serious. He and I have great conversations before bed. When his mind is relaxed and open for discussion. I on the other hand, curse myself for not paying more attention in history class and copying off my best friend in science class. Tell your kids now to pay attention in school because maybe they won’t need this stuff for a job but they will need it when their kids are preschoolers and their favorite question to ask is WHY?

Ending 2:

So Bedtime is my favorite time because this kid is finally going to be asleep; and man, he is so cute when he is sleeping and still<—- Yep! I think that too. But in all honesty, I love bedtime because it brings out a different side to my kid that I don’t get to see all day because his mind is going 100 miles an hour the other 11 hours he is awake. My advice, for what is worth, is slow down and take time to listen to your kid(s) thoughts, if you don’t do it already. It’s pretty amazing the way they see and process the world around them. You too may find a new love for bedtime, just for a different reason.